The present invention generally relates to documentation and help systems for computer-based systems.
Today, most computer-based systems (data processing systems) provide some kind of written documentation and, in combination thereto, a help system. The documentation generally represents the aids provided for understanding the structure and intended uses of the system or its components, mainly describing the requirements, capabilities, limitations, design, operation, and maintenance of the system. The help system generally provides one or more display images that describe how to use an application or how to do a system operation. In most cases, the help system is started by a help key as a function key that displays a help text when it is pressed, or by selecting a help menu describing alternative actions when a user encounters a problem with the system or application.
The documentation may be embodied by printed manuals and/or as online documentation. The online documentation may be stored within the computer system or onto a server in a network structure, e.g. in a public network such as the Internet or in an internal proprietary network (intranet), allowing navigation within the documentation by so-called "hyperlinks" which link documentation pages stored on different locations in either the same or different servers. The online documentation typically provides a document reader for reading specified documentation files which generally do not coincide with such information used for the help system.
In most cases, the help system is implemented as an online help function in the computer system. Online help systems provide the user of the computer system with some assistance when performing a particular task. The online help systems may be context sensitive, meaning that an information requested depends on the context within the current application. The context sensitive online help system enables the user to quickly access help information, for example, by pressing a dedicated help key while a mouse cursor is pointing to an area of interest.
Online as used herein means that the respective information is accessible directly by the computer system and, e.g., while an application is running on the computer system.
FIG. 1 shows a help system for a computer system as known in the art. A display 10 within the computer system displays a mouse cursor 20 pointing on an area of interest 30. A dedicated help key 40 is embodied, e.g., within a terminal 50. On request by the help key 40 over a line 45, a help engine 60 provides a help information via a line 65 to the computer system which again may be displayed by the display 10. The provided help information may be context sensitive meaning that the help information is related to the specific context of the area of interest 30 as pointed out by the mouse cursor 20 (as indicated by arrow 67). The help engine 60 searches for the help information by applying a context related signal on a line 68 to a database 70 and receiving the help information on a line 75.
In most cases, the database 70 is implemented as an indexed database, meaning that an access path to a file 80 within the indexed database 70 is built on key values, and a record 90 in the file 80 is identified by a key field. The record 90 contains an information page comprising information requested as the help information. The position of the record 90 is recorded in an index as a separate portion of the file 80. The indexed database 70 contains the indices as well as the thereto corresponding text information within the respective records of the file 80, however in a compiled data format. The indexed database 70 usually receives its information from text files 110 generally compiled by a compiler 120.
The information page of the record 90 might also comprise an indexed cross reference 100 to one or more other records. Cross references 100 such as links to other related information pages are handled by the help engine 60 and are stored and maintained within the database 70.
One major disadvantage of today's solution is that the documentation is strictly separated from the help functionality. The help information might give a brief description of a particular task and it is up to the user to look into the appropriate section of the documentation to get more information about the underlying concepts etc.
Another disadvantage is that today's online help systems generally use some kind of proprietary help compiler 120 needed to translate the textual representation of the help information into the text file 110 to a compiled form which is suitable for the proprietary context sensitive help system in the indexed database 70. This implies that customizing the help information requires access to and knowledge about the respective proprietary compiler 120.
In automated test equipment (ATE) systems, it has been found particularly difficult to use online help functions or online documentation, since ATE systems are generally not used in standard applications predefined by the supplier of the ATE system, but in very specific customer-oriented applications defined by the user of the ATE system. This makes it quite difficult for the supplier of the ATE system to provide a document useful for a plurality of customers.
Further more, most of the knowledge about the processes to be executed by the ATE systems and the environment wherein the ATE system is to be used, which is to be outlined in a documentation and/or required for help systems, is generally not owned by the supplier of the ATE system, but by the user thereof. In that case, the user of the ATE system needs to `write` an own (customer internal) user documentation describing the use of the ATE system in the respective customer's environment.